52 Moms Talk Food: Kara in Northern CA

Parents of two young boys, Kara and her husband live in Rocklin, near Sacramento. When she’s not busy chasing her sons around, you can find her blogging about them at Snot Rags & Grocery Bags. She took a few minutes out of her action-packed day to chat with me about feeding tips and tricks that work for her family.

Q: What is your food philosophy? Kara: Our food philosophy changed between sons. With our first son, my husband and I fed him “kid food,” thinking he wouldn’t like the foods we ate. But once he started refusing simple foods at restaurants and friends’ homes, we changed our feeding habits when our second one started eating solids. We began putting everything we ate on their plates. Our youngest son will try anything, and our oldest one is coming around.

Q: What are your favorite ways to get your kids to eat nutritious foods? Kara: Here are some ways we like to encourage healthy eating: Make meals fun.

Our oldest son loves to cheers with cups, so we invented “carrot cheers” to get him to eat more veggies.

Get them in the kitchen. Our 3-year-old loves to cook and he’s more willing to try new foods when he helps prepare them.

Try not to stress too much. If my kids don’t touch their veggies, I remind myself that they are getting nutrients from other foods, like our fruit and green smoothies.

Q: What is your favorite shortcut for getting dinner on the table?Kara: Keep it simple and plan ahead. I love crockpot meals or meals I can prepare ahead of time, like enchiladas or casseroles. I also try to buy less packaged foods and make more foods at home, like chicken nuggets (see Kara’s recipe below)!

MY TAKE-AWAY: Kudos to Kara for changing up her feeding routine when she saw it wasn’t working for her oldest son. And in the process, she’s found some creative ways to make healthier foods more appealing to her kids. Most of all, I love that Kara cooks more foods at home (see her super-easy recipe for chicken nuggets below!) and that she gets her kids involved in cooking. That deserves a carrot cheers!